Menu

Tag Archives: greenwich

No riding for the first two weeks as the Canadienne is visiting, and there are too many other plans. She is surprised it’s Autumn here, but at the start of the month, it really is. Coolness nips at the edges of the days and a sort of regal mustiness is settling over Greenwich park as the change in season really comes on. The weather is mostly good when she’s here though; at the top of the London Eye, the city is covered in blue sky, and it’s the same when we drive to York.

When she’s gone, there are a series of beautiful mornings, the trees in Greenwich park surrounded by dropped leaves, orange and ochre shadows at every angle. When she’s gone, it’s a case of doing lots of commutes, getting through the miles and coping with the distance. The route is getting dull though, particularly the part after the park, a straight charge down the unlovely Jamaica Road, through Deptford and Bermondsey. It’s made worse by noisy roadworks, and now that the schools are back, backed up traffic, churning away slowly. I buy myself some new lights and hi-viz bands to put on my bag; the back light is particularly good, a nobbly grenade of a thing which spits out bright red light to the sides as well as backwards.

As the month draws to a close, the temperatures rise again and we’re back in summer. This is deeply confusing to the people I see when I’m waiting at red lights. They’ve already mentally adjusted so they wear wooly coats and scarves despite the bright sunshine. I have a wonderful ride on a Boris bike from Charing Cross up to Bayswater, skimming the edge of Hyde Park, under the huge trees and past the Serpentine.

168 miles is a respectable total for the month; it leaves me just over 500 to do in the remaining three months, so I’m almost exactly on target – which would be fine, but November and December have the capacity to be both busy and full of awful weather. The BHAG is in reach though.